That's a marmalade spoon - and you're using it for jam!

Continuing my trip down The Guardian's Top 50 TV Shows of 2021.  

#44 : The Pursuit Of Love

Emily Mortimer’s retelling of Nancy Mitford’s novel could have fallen back on all the old Sunday-night TV chocolate-box tropes. Instead, Mortimer worked hard to boost both the joy and sadness of the source material. A clatteringly good watch that deserves to go down as a classic.

This would not have been on my list of things to watch - without necessarily understanding why.  I think my concern is that it will just be a bit too "jolly hockeysticks" for me, without me having the slightest evidence it was going to be anything like that at all.  So let's see...

We follow Linda (played by Lily James) for whom "flighty" would be an appropriate word and her much more sensible (and educated, which is amusingly disparaged as an admirable quality for a woman) cousin Fanny (played by Emily Beecham).  And what are these two ladies chasing?  Go on - guess.  One rushes headlong and one overly hesitates - will it work out well for either of them?

Well, that's the basic story but there's so much more to it than that - it takes a pretty broad swipe at society, commenting on class, gender, education, politics and a whole lot more.  I have to be honest and say I probably missed a lot of the points it was making because my knowledge of British society between the wars is pretty lacking, but it didn't feel like my enjoyment unduly suffered as a result.

It is, at its core, all the most frightful nonsense as Linda marries in haste but repents at leisure including spending time as a communist (including the compulsory beret) and the mistress to a French nobleman - but it's all pretty watchable nonsense.  It's surprisingly funny at times and surprisingly tragic at others and it manages the juxtaposition well - sometimes concurrently with, for example, everyone (particularly Davey) having a nice line in complimenting Fanny in such a well-meaning but cack-handed way.

The two leads play their parts well, although you get the impression the role of Linda doesn't overly stretch Lily's acting talents - it's not exactly a nuanced role.  Emily Beecham has more to do as Fanny and is the stand-out of the two for me - she nicely balances her reliability with her frustration using some subtle gestures.

Considering the rest of the cast, Dominic West is excellent as Uncle Matthew - yes, it's a massively over-the-top role but he thoroughly enjoys it.  In a similar vein, Andrew Scott is great as Lord Merlin the "artist" neighbour who Uncle Matthew THOROUGHLY disapproves of.  Everyone else is generally fine, although some of the roles are somewhat underwritten in comparison - I would also say the child acting is remarkably understated and natural.

I'm also going to call out Emily Mortimer having great fun as Fanny's mother who is only ever referred to as "The Bolter", so called because of her habit of running away from men - and she's frightfully proud of the fact that one of them died before she had the chance to leave.  And one final call for Shazad Latif who plays Alfred, who I recognised but couldn't remember where from.  WIkipedia kindly tells me he was Tariq in Spooks and Ash Tyler in Star Trek:Discovery - and until I looked that up I never realised they were played by the same person (and he looks completely different in this as well).

I don't know the original material, but the screenplay felt as though it did a good job of bringing the ambience and story across to the screen well.  I am however interested to know whether the scene right at the end (no spoilers) comes from the book or the screenplay.  It's basically some women sitting around musing "wouldn't it be nice if, at some time in the future, us ladies will be allowed to choose our life and not be defined by the man we marry?" - if it's from the book, I'll let it off but if it's been added on, it was a bit clunky.

It is well shot with some lovely shots of the British countryside, although it does feel that the shots "abroad" were filmed just round the corner with the addition of an appropriate prop (France, you say?  Here's a baguette to hold).  There's only so much money to go round though and they definitely didn't skimp on the actors.  It also makes good use of more modern music (a la Peaky Blinders) throughout - and that don't come cheap!

As I previously said, I had no intention of watching this and was fully expecting to ditch it after the first episode.  But I really liked it and it's only three episodes so was more than happy to complete it and was pleased I watched it to the end.   I'm not sure I quite go along with The Guardian's view it is a classic, but it's certainly engaging and enjoyable with more story than I was expecting - so much so that it made me want to read the book.

It also, along with recent comments from both Paul Whitehouse and Bob Mortimer (whilst they were fishing) and Adam Buxton and Tim Key (on Adam's podcast) made me think "would I actually like PG Wodehouse now?"  

What's happening to me?  Am I getting old and boring?  ("getting" - ha!)

#43 - Don't judge it 'til you've seen it
#45 - Another very enjoyable series